melhwes

Cornish

Etymology

From Proto-Brythonic *melw- (“soft”), from Proto-Celtic *meldo- (“pleasant, mild”), *mlido (“soft”), from Proto-Indo-European *ml̥dus (“soft, weak”).

Compare Breton melw (“snot”)); akin to Breton melc’hwed, Welsh malwod. Also see Gaulish *multon- (“sheep”), which could be related.

Noun

melhwes f (collective, singulative melhwesen or melhwyjen)

  1. snails
  2. slugs

Synonyms

  • (snails): bulhornes
  • (slugs): melhwen, gluthvelhwen

Mutation

Mutation of melhwes
unmutated soft aspirate hard mixed mixed after 'th
melhwes velhwes unchanged unchanged felhwes velhwes

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Cornish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Further reading

  • Matasović, Ranko (2009) “meldo-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 262
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